From left, Gary Knight, of Charlestown, NH and Warren Mordenti, of Newport, NH, look over cars prior to an auction of seized property of James Galante's at Metro Auto Body & Towing in Harford, CT, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009. The property consisted of racing cars and parts. less

From left, Gary Knight, of Charlestown, NH and Warren Mordenti, of Newport, NH, look over cars prior to an auction of seized property of James Galante's at Metro Auto Body & Towing in Harford, CT, Friday, Nov. ... more

From left, Gary Knight, of Charlestown, NH and Warren Mordenti, of Newport, NH, look over cars prior to an auction of seized property of James Galante's at Metro Auto Body & Towing in Harford, CT, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009. The property consisted of racing cars and parts. less

From left, Gary Knight, of Charlestown, NH and Warren Mordenti, of Newport, NH, look over cars prior to an auction of seized property of James Galante's at Metro Auto Body & Towing in Harford, CT, Friday, Nov. ... more

From left, Tom Bolles, of Ellington, CT and Lloyd Agor, of New Milford, attend an auction of seized property of James Galante's at Metro Auto Body & Towing in Harford, CT, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009. The property consisted of racing cars and parts. less

From left, Tom Bolles, of Ellington, CT and Lloyd Agor, of New Milford, attend an auction of seized property of James Galante's at Metro Auto Body & Towing in Harford, CT, Friday, Nov. 6, 2009. The property ... more

"They're phenomenal cars,'' said O'Reilly of St. Joseph., Pa. "They dominated the tracks for many years. These cars have been the best.''

But on Friday, the cars -- not to mention a dozen differentials, a few crates of motor oil, a few dozen wheels, exhaust pipes and piles of scrap metal -- went on sale to the highest bidder.

The equipment of the treasured racing team once owned by jailed trash mogul James Galante -- a team he poured money into like you pour oil into a '57 Chevy with bad rings -- was auctioned off by the U.S. Federal Marshal's Office.

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"It's like the vow you take when you get married,'' auctioneer Paul Erickson told the prospective buyers gathered at the Metro Auto Body and Towing garage here. "For better or worse.''

The marshal's office seized the assets of the racing team in 2006, after federal prosecutors charged Galante, a New Fairfield resident, with 72 counts of racketeering in connection with the 25 trash businesses he ran in Fairfield County.

Galante, prosecutors said, was enforcing a property rights scheme. In essence he created a near-monopoly of the trash business in the region, enforcing his overpriced contracts with threats, intimidation and mob muscle.

In 2008, Galante pleaded guilty to three of those charges. He is now serving an 87-month prison term in a federal prison in Pennsylvania.

Along with his racing equipment, the federal marshals also seized a horse farm Galante owned in Southbury and his 25 businesses. They also shut down the Danbury Trashers, the minor league hockey team Galante owned.

They are now in the process of disposing of those assets. The farm is under contract to be sold for $824,900, and the trash businesses are slated to be sold in the near future.

What struck many people at the Friday sale was the amount of money Galante put into the team he named Mystique Motorsports.

The team was run by driver Ted Christopher of Plainville, who basically built each car from the ground up. He also built them specifically for the tracks where they raced -- the touring cars for national events, the smaller SK cars for "Saturday night'' racing at local tracks.

"It takes a lot of money to race that way,'' said Kevin Huffman of Pennsylvania.

But Dana McNaughton, of Salem, saw that as a drawback. To buy the cars, he said, you'd also have to buy a lot of the spare parts on sale. To buy the parts, he said, you'd need to buy the cars.

"Otherwise, they're useless,'' he said.

But the auction drew people from all around the Northeast -- in part because of Galante's notoriety, in part because of the quality of the merchandise, in part because hard-core racing fans are a bit nuts.

"This is like seeing a bunch of cats let loose on a rat ranch,'' said Mark Legere of Salem, N.H., looking at the swarm of people coming in to buy, or at least to dream of buying.

One of those people was Neil Maxted of Bethel, who wants to get into racing.

"There's a lot of very nice cars here,'' Maxted said. "But these are going to be too expensive.''

For an hour the prospective bidders milled around the garage -- almost exclusively men in windbreakers and hooded sweatshirts and baseball caps, gathering into small groups, then going back to stare very hard at the engines in the car, like a jeweler looking for the flaws in a seemingly perfect 24-carat rock.